Prenatal Yoga can be a great way to prepare for childbirth and stay healthy during your pregnancy. For this article, I have the pleasure to have Nikki Allen discuss yoga positions and breathing during pregnancy. Nikki is a doula, holistic health coach, personal trainer and nutrition-wellness expert.
She also is the voice behind Zestful Vitality, a website that offers Online Yoga Classes and a lot of helpful information in her blog. You can schedule an Online Yoga Class here.
Introduction
I have practiced yoga for years, so continuing to practice with prenatal yoga when I was pregnant was a no brainer. Not every woman has a yoga practice in place before she embarks into pregnancy, so why start a practice then?
Pregnancy is a time for change. Not only are we changing physically, we also go through a sort of mental shift that can bring up a lot of emotion. For me, pregnancy was my time to finally get a meditation practice in place.
Prenatal yoga offers time for us to connect with your baby through meditation. A wonderful way to do this is to place one hand on the belly and one hand on the heart. (If your baby is already starting to move, it’s fun to feel those kicks during meditation.)
Prenatal Yoga and Breathing
Allow yourself to just breathe deeply as you calm your mind. As I mentioned, a lot of emotion can come up. You may feel exuberant, worried, stressed, calm. Whatever you feel during this connection, just allow the emotion to come up, take note of it and release it while focusing again on the breath. Being present is a HUGE benefit. It allows you to stay calm and focused during labor and delivery.
Your breath is one of the most important things whether pregnant or not. Our breath sends signals to our body and our body responds. If you have short, quick breaths, you’re sending a message of stress to your body. We tend to breathe this way when we’re stressed or when we’re experiencing pain.
I invite you to think of labor differently. Our body knows exactly what to do. Your baby knows exactly what to do. What we feel during labor and delivery is brief with a wonderful benefit at the end – your baby. So, think about breathing in deeply and filling up your entire body with oxygen. Send oxygen to your baby.
The Bumblebee Breath
You may want to practice a Pranayama called bumblebee breath during pregnancy that will alleviate stress and insomnia. This Pranayama is done by closing the mouth, dropping the tongue away from the roof of the mouth and making an ‘m’ sound. It should sound like a bumblebee.
Cleansing breath is another helpful Pranayama that can be done with or without sound. With cleansing breath, you breathe in deeply through the nose then open your mouth to exhale. Feel free to add a deep groan as you exhale. This may be a helpful tool as you labor.
As I got into the latter stages of my labor, those deep groans kept me focused on the contraction while diminishing any uncomfortable feeling I was having in my body.
Yoga Asanas (Movements)
Yoga asanas (the movement of yoga) can be done at any stage of pregnancy. Poses aid in working with the pregnant body for optimal health. There are flows that can assist with reducing morning sickness, flows that can help with indigestion, flows to help with low back pain and even flows to assist with opening up space in the body.
Many movements aid in strengthening and releasing the pelvic floor muscles to get ready for delivery. One prenatal yoga technique for strengthening the pelvic floor muscles is to engage the mula bandha. This is similar to Kegel exercises. You can engage your mula bandha by engaging the different pelvic floor muscles.
Some say that it’s what you use to stop the flow of urine, but it goes beyond that. You can practice feeling the activation of the different pelvic floor muscles by coming into cat-cow pose and moving your hips around. You’ll feel the different muscles engage.
You can even do this in a seated posture. While sitting up tall, arch your back to feel more on the front of the pelvis then round the spine to feel how the weight is closer to the sacrum or anus. Strengthening should be done as well as relaxing the pelvic floor muscles. Any pose with legs open wide can release the pelvic floor muscles.
What better way to connect with other mamas than to go to a prenatal yoga practice? It’s helpful to have a community. Whether you are friends with other mothers already or you aren’t, it’s helpful to have that community of women to connect with. You can rely on one another for tips on raising baby or to share beautiful moments. There will be plenty of beautiful moments to come.
You can schedule a Yoga Practice here.
Here are some yoga asanas that you can incorporate into your practice at any trimester in your pregnancy:
About the Author
Nikki Allen has been practicing yoga for 15 years. She teaches a few styles of yoga including prenatal and Vinyasa flow. Along with yoga, Nikki has these other credentials: doula, holistic health coach, personal trainer and nutrition-wellness expert. She had her first baby in April 2020 and with the help of yoga, had a non-medicated vaginal birth. She enjoys reading, spending time with her loved ones and singing with her daughter.
Conclusion
Congratulations on your new baby! It is such a blessing, and I am so happy that you are educating yourself on what to expect. Preparation brings a level of confidence that is so important to new parents. Remember that you can always check out our BABY ACADEMY for all of our prenatal resources for new parents. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help!
Free Prenatal Class
Enjoy a free prenatal class from the comfort of your own home! This is a course that I wrote based on a decade of professional and personal experiences regarding everything from childbirth to newborn care. This is a self-paced course that you can watch anytime and anywhere you want! You can sign up HERE. I look forward to connecting with you! – Rachel
Exciting News!!
Did you know that many insurance plans include FREE prenatal and postnatal consultations? See if you qualify by filling out this form: INSURANCE AUTHORIZATION FORM. Consultations can be virtual, in home, or in office with no out of pocket costs.